New group tries to remove emotion from gas-drilling debate

Dryden-based coalition provides information from opposing viewpoints

Jul. 29, 2011

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Dryden -- A new group focused on hydraulic fracturing in Dryden said they are neither pro- nor anti-fracking, and its members do not all have leases, nor do they all have large parcels of land that are appealing to gas companies.

The Dryden Safe Energy Coalition members do not adhere to the "Drill, baby, drill" line of thinking, nor do they support the total drilling ban pending in the Town of Dryden, said Henry Kramer, one of the group's organizers.

"The inspiration (to create DrydenSEC) is to educate people, to get people the unemotional facts about energy development," Kramer said. "Part of what we're trying to do is put up a website where people can go and get information that is more or less dispassionately presented."

The education-focused group is not quite two weeks old, yet its members hope to make a difference in the town's approach to dealing with drilling issues. Kramer said the group stands for moving slowly toward "safe, regulated fracking with safeguards through the (state Department of Environmental Conservation)," without banning drilling outright.

Three of the group's organizers, Dryden residents Kramer and Tracy Marisa and Newfield resident Tom Reynolds, said a lot has been presented in Tompkins County from an anti-drilling perspective, but not balanced by any opposing information.

"You either have industry sources or anti-fracking sources, and to get a neutral source is difficult," Kramer said. "Is it risk-free? Nothing is risk-free. Is the risk acceptable? These are questions that need to be balanced out and they aren't."

Films such as "Gasland" are not searches for truth, but one-sided presentations, the group states on its website, drydensec.org.

"We're trying to get people to think," Reynolds said.

Group members said they think their position is more widespread than it seems. Reynolds said many people have responded positively to the group. Marisa said that because of the group's message, "they now have permission to say something."

The organizers say DrydenSEC is not exclusively for landowners, but they note that the total ban going to vote in Dryden in August would eliminate about $175 million in mineral rights in the town, by the group's estimate.

Kramer says he has not leased his land, and Marisa said she has less than half an acre -- too small a parcel to interest a gas company landsman. Reynolds has 11 acres in Newfield.

Primarily, DrydenSEC's message is to take things slowly, Kramer, Reynolds and Marisa said.

"We would like to see the town step back and wait," Kramer said. November's election could have a new group of people in office, he said. "What's the haste, what's the hurry? Why do they have to pass this now? The guidelines that the state just put out have a comment period. Plus, they're going to have to evaluate the comments after the comments are finished. There is no chance there will be a well permit issued, really, before the November elections, and whoever is elected in Dryden after that, whether it's the incumbents or their opponents, they will have a new mandate."